Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

When an area grows by virtue of an expansion of its commuting population, social capital can be reduced. This is because many new people arrive who have no connection with the area. They leave at 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. to go to work, put their children in a crèche and do not arrive home until late in the evening, by which time they are tired, hungry and stressed. They feed their families, do their household chores, fall into bed and then get up the following day to repeat the cycle.

One of the challenges for our society is that, while we are better off economically, there has been a social capital cost attached to the increase in wealth. Our final measure of should be quality of life. Sometimes we talk too much about the economy and too little about creating for our people the best——

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